Methods and apparatus for generic semantic access to information systems

• US 7,853,618 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2005
• Issued: 12/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Yuan, Jun, Hamidzadeh, Babak
• Primary Examiner(s): Jalil; Neveen Abel
• Assistant Examiner(s): LIANG, VEI CHUNG
• Application Number:
  US11/186,253
• Publication Number:
  US 20070022107A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,972 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3
• US Class Current: 707/794
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/36 Creation of semantic tools, e.g. ontology or thesauri
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology

Abstract

A method of providing information from at least one information resource. A semantic query is received that includes one or more generic constructs referencing an ontology relating to a domain of the information resource(s). A representation of the semantic query in an ontology representation language is inferred from the constructs. The query representation is used to access the information resource(s). This method allows a user to formulate database queries semantically without knowledge as to underlying data structures.

Claims

1. A method of providing information from at least one information resource, said method comprising:

providing, via a graphical user interface (GUI), a plurality of generic ontological constructs made available in accordance with a set of semantic query validity rules, the rules enforcing neutrality of a semantic query relative to substantially all ontological representation languages such that each and any semantic query specified by a user via the GUI and validated by the semantic query validity rules is representable in substantially all ontological representation languages, each of the constructs having a counterpart in each of the substantially all ontological representation languages;

receiving from a user via the GUI a semantic query including one or more of the generic constructs, the received semantic query referencing an ontology relating to a domain of the at least one information resource;

inferring from the included constructs a representation of the received semantic query in an ontology representation language associated with the referenced ontology; and

using the inferred query representation to access the at least one information resource;

said method performed by at least one processor configured with memory.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising returning an answer to the semantic query as an instantiation of the referenced ontology.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a semantic query from the user comprises:

displaying at least a part of the referenced ontology via the GUI; and

receiving a selection from the user of one or more constructs from the displayed at least a part of the referenced ontology to specify the semantic query.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one information resource includes at least one of the following:

a relational database, an xml repository, a table structured layout, a hierarchical/network structure, and a RDF repository.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a semantic query from the user comprises:

allowing the user to select a first concept node for display via the GUI;

receiving a selection by the user of a relationship node for the displayed first concept node; and

defining and displaying a semantic navigation from the first concept node to a second concept node based on the selected relationship node.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising returning an answer to the semantic query using data from a plurality of information resources.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the received semantic query includes one or more instances of the one or more constructs.

8. A computer system that allows a user to semantically query at least one information resource of the computer system, the computer system comprising:

one or more processors and memory configured to;

provide, via a graphical user interface (GUI), a plurality of generic ontological constructs made available in accordance with a set of semantic query validity rules that enforce neutrality of a semantic query relative to substantially all ontological representation languages such that each and any semantic query specified by a user via the GUI and validated by the semantic query validity rules is representable in substantially all ontological representation languages;

receive from the user via the GUI a semantic query including one or more of the generic constructs referencing an ontology relating to a domain of the at least one information resource;

use inferences from the included constructs to obtain a representation of the received semantic query in an ontology representation language associated with the referenced ontology, the ontology representation language structured to provide the inferences from the included constructs; and

use the inferred query representation to access the at least one information resource.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein to receive a semantic query from the user comprises:

to display at least a part of the referenced ontology via the GUI; and

to receive a selection from the user of one or more constructs from the displayed at least a part of the referenced ontology to specify the semantic query.

10. The system of claim 8, further configured to deliver an answer to the query as an instantiation of the referenced ontology.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein to receive a semantic query from the user comprises:

to allow the user to select a first concept node for display via the GUI;

to receive a selection by the user of a relationship node for the displayed first concept node; and

to define and display a semantic navigation from the first concept node to a second concept node based on the selected relationship node.

12. The system of claim 8, further configured to:

represent the query as one or more RDF-based documents; and

serialize the documents using XML.

13. One or more tangible computer-readable storage media comprising instructions stored in the media and executable by a processor to

provide, via a graphical user interface (GUI), a plurality of generic ontological constructs made available in accordance with a set of semantic query validity rules enforcing neutrality of a semantic query relative to substantially all ontological representation languages such that each and any semantic query specified by a user via the GUI and validated by the semantic query validity rules is representable in substantially all ontological representation languages;

receive from a user a user semantic query including one or more of the constructs referencing an ontology relating to a domain of at least one information resource;

use inferences from the included constructs to obtain a representation of the user semantic query in an ontology representation language associated with the referenced ontology;

use the query representation obtained from the user query to access the at least one information resource; and

return an answer to the user as an instantiation of the referenced ontology;

the generic constructs having at least one of the following;

a concept, and a relationship.

14. The media of claim 13, wherein the user includes an instantiation of one of the generic constructs in the user query, the media further comprising instructions executable by a processor to use the instantiation to obtain the query representation.

15. The media of claim 13, further comprising instructions executable by a processor to display at least a part of the referenced ontology via the GUI;

and

to receive a selection from the user of one or more constructs from the displayed at least a part of the referenced ontology to specify the semantic query.

16. The media of claim 13, further comprising instructions executable by a processor to allow the user to select a first concept node for display via the GUI;

to receive a selection by the user of a relationship node for the displayed first concept node; and

to define and display a semantic navigation from the first concept node to a second concept node based on the selected relationship node.

17. The media of claim 13, further comprising instructions executable by a processor to receive via the GUI a plurality of node selections by the user to define the semantic query.